Anthrax Guitarist Would Add Exodus To Big Four

Scott Ian says there's only one other band who could sign up and make a decent Big Five. Meanwhile, who's his favorite band from the current Big Four lineup?

Posted on Sep 19, 2012 02:55 pm

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To see a Big Four show with its lineup of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, is to witnessing a masterclass in thrash metal.
But what if it were a Big Five? Who would you add to the lineup?
Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has an idea. He recently said tat there's only one other band that deserves a place in the elitist thrash school, and that's Exodus.
"The only other band really that it would make sense [to include] as far as American thrash-metal would be Exodus, because they were there right at the beginning as well. Their first album came out right at the same time as the rest of us. So I mean, to me, yes - if you were gonna add a fifth band, certainly I would think Exodus would be able to fill that slot very easily," he told Georgia Straight.
Ian also revealed his personal favorite act from the Big Four:
"If you went into my iTunes and you looked at the play count to see what songs I listen to the most, I would probably bet Slayer gets played more than Metallica or Megadeth."
Their collective live album "The Big Four: Live From Sofia, Bulgaria" went double-platinum this year - though as Blabbermouth note, it helped that the album came with two discs, which meant they only had to sell 50,000 units to pass the 100,000 threshold to claim the double-platinum certification.
Who would you add to the Big Four lineup if you had a choice? Let us know in the comments.

They where a bit late in the scene. They are great but the Big Four/Five applies to the bands that started thrash/made it popular. Megadeth formed later than the rest though and Anthrax was more NWOBHM on Fistful but nevertheless

Scott is right, Exodus were one of the first bands along with Metallica and Slayer to lay the foundation for the whole genre, and definitely deserve more recognition. Also, Tom Hunting is one hell of a drummer.

Contrary to popular belief, the big four actually applies to the four most commercially successful thrash albums of 1986.
Master of Puppets - Metallica
Peace Sells - Megadeth
Reign In Blood - Slayer
Among the living - Anthrax

Yes it was, but the album was popular before then because the band played some of the songs (Indians) live and fans recorded them playing it was with tape recorders and distributed them throughout 1986.
Thrash metal was a scene based on tape-trading, so similar situations happened a lot in the early-mid eighties. Which is pretty ironic, considering how Lars attempted to sue Napster for doing pretty much exactly what he was encouraging his fans to do in the eighties.

Death Angel is perhaps one of the most unappreciated metal bands. I never even heard about them until my dad told me about them, and I've still only heard little about them since then.
PEOPLE MUST BE TAUGHT ABOUT THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS DEATH ANGEL.

Where's the love for overkill? One of the most consistently good thrash bands out there, and plus rat helped start the tape trading movement which is what helped launch bands like Metallica in the first place. Plus Bobby blitz rules